


you´re my virus

by xuxisushii



Category: NCT, NCT Dream
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Blood, Character Death, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan - Freeform, M/M, Mark Lee (NCT) is Whipped, Not Beta Read, Violence, Zombie Apocalypse, and blows bubblegum, but not too heavy, but not too major, haechan has a pink baseball bat, huang renjun - Freeform, i mean it´s heavy, lee jeno - Freeform, mark goes crazy because of haechan, mark lee - Freeform, mark lee centric, na jaemin - Freeform, park jisung - Freeform, they´re not really zombies tho, zhong chenle - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-08-06 14:03:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16389080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xuxisushii/pseuds/xuxisushii
Summary: the world has gone to shit and undead zombies are constantly hunting for fresh meat. mark is alone until he meets a group of boys and gets welcomed into their little family. one of the boys is donghyuck. a sassy, bubblegum blowing bitch who smashes zombie heads like no other with his pink baseball bat. mark feels himself going crazy, but not because of the virus. because of donghyuck. everything is okay until mark makes a discovery changing all of their lives





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> the idea of hyuck being "a sassy, bubblegum blowing bitch who smashes zombie heads like no other with his pink baseball bat" was the reason why i wrote this story. i hope y'all understand the world setting.  
> also listen to bubble gum bitch by marina and the diamonds before reading this. it sets a mood lol  
> n e ways, i hope y'all enjoy it

* * *

_The virus changed everything. A top-secret lab, that experimented with a certain virus got infected and people noticed too late that it was already spreading. It spreads over blood transfusion or bites. If you get infected, you slowly turn crazy and loose control over yourself. For some the process takes longer, for some shorter. To save humanity the leaders of the world decided to build safe cities. The cities consisted mainly of slums for the poor majority and small luxurious centers, guarded by an extra wall. The city itself was also guarded by a wall and yet, a ton of infected people lived in them. The poor secretly in the shadows and the rich paying for treatment to slow down the virus. If they caught you being infected, and you couldn’t bribe them, they kicked you out of the city. Living outside of the city was suicidal. Outside the cities applied no law and violent gangs tried surviving no matter what. The outside also oozed with insane and hungry undead always searching for fresh meat. And yet, a lot of people were forced to live on the outside. Simply because they were infected, or the closest cities had run up of space to take them in. The greatest scientists were working continuously on a cure, but without any success. At least until now._

* * *

 

 

Mark closed his eyes and tried to stifle his terrified whimpering by biting on his hand. He could hear them-the undead-grunting outside of the old closet he was hiding in. mark hoped they wouldn´t notice the rapid hammering of his heart and open the door to his hideout. How could this happen? It had been a peaceful morning when mark and his mom had decided to head out and search for food in the abandoned houses. The rising sun had quietly peeked through the withered sycamore trees and a few birds had whistled faintly. Mark had been so sure of the peace, had been careless and hadn´t noticed the blood traces on the floor when he had entered the first house. He sent a prayer, not necessarily to god, but to anyone who was willing to listen, begging to make it out alive. suddenly he heard a violent screech and the sound of bones breaking. His Mom! Mark snapped his eyes open and tried to open the closet door but it didn´t move. He panicked and banged against the door-unsuccessfully. His mom screamed in pain. Now he tried pushing the doors open with full force. His knuckles burned, he yelled for his mom and tears blurred his vision. his mom whimpered. the undead screeched hungrily.

“You have to survive Mark, I love you!” grunted his mom outside the door.

“No mom! Mom! Please don´t, I love you! I need you! Mom!” Mark yelled, his voice breaking and chocking on tears.

He heard the violent sound of ripping flesh. He wailed in agony, covered his ears, closed his eyes. He slid down one the closet wall and tried blending out what was happening on the other side. His heart was beating fast, his face felt hot, his hands and arms were burning. He just wanted it to survive.

 

* * *

 

 

Mark opened his eyes. It was dark. He sat up slowly and immediately felt soreness shooting though his throat and limps. His mom! He listened into the silence. The undead were probably gone after devouring his-.. Mark stood up and kicked against the door. Nothing. There was some sort of resistance keeping the door shut. Mark got angry. He kicked again and again. Harder with each kick. The pain in his leg intensified and it was yelling for him to stop but he heard a weak creak of wood. With seemingly nonending stamina he continued kicking the door with all his strength until it suddenly burst open with a wooden sigh. Something metal fell with a dull thud on the floor. Mark gasped. The whole floor was covered in blood and small pieces of flesh and intestines. He began shaking. Mark retched and breathed heavily. He needed to be strong now, he was all alone. Turning around to the closet he began looking for what could have been the reason for the resistance. In front of him lay a slightly dent crowbar. Mark picked it up confused with shaky hands. And then like a fist the realization hit him. His mom must have put it between then door handles, after mark had gotten into the closet. She had put it there with the hope that the undead wouldn´t be able to open the door that way. She had done everything to keep him safe. Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes again, but he inhaled deeply, trying to calm himself down. Without looking back at the floor, he turned towards the door and sneaked out of him. He listened again whether he could hear an undead in the house. Nothing. With fast steps, he made his way downstairs into the kitchen. Mark noticed relief, there weren´t any new blood trails. He was most definitely alone. The cupboards were in surprisingly fine condition, considering the house had probably been abandoned for at least two years. He opened one swiftly and was greeted with several cans. Mark couldn´t help but let out a happy sigh. After he emptied out this and a second cupboard (the other ones were sadly only filled with rusty kitchen utensils) he started examining his find. It consisted of three cans of a beans and peas mix, five cans of canned meat and four cans of canned peaches. Content with his discovery he stuffed them into his worn-out backpack. He also packed a knife into the holster attached to his pants, a pair of scissors and some sort of thin thread. He´d carry the crowbar ready to smash sum skulls. Even though he desperately hoped he wouldn´t have to. With his new goods packed he spied out of the window to the garden. Behind the garden was the forest his mom and him came from earlier. He saw the forest lining yellow fields. He felt a lump in his throat planning out what to do. Usually he´d do it with his mom but- no! he shouldn´t think of it now. He needed to keep going. With new found determination he pushed the door open and stepped into the neglected garden. He made his way over to the fence, climbed over it and started walking to the edge of the forest, where it met the fields. It was not safe to walk through the forest, especially when you´re alone. But it wasn´t much safer walking over plain fields, where basically wasn´t any place for shelter. So, walking between the border seemed best. Mark didn´t look back. He didn´t allow himself to. He didn´t knew where he was going, but he knew he needed to keep going. So that´s what he was going to do now.

The sun painted the sky a vibrant pink as it set behind the seemingly endless yellow fields. Mark had walked for hours until he had found a tree perfect for the night. He had climbed it with ease (climbing luckily being one of his strengths) and had opened a can of the beans and peas mix. While munching on the vegetables he watched the vibrant sunset. The pink had turned into a gentle purple, making the yellow fields glow majestically. How he wished he could take a picture of it. The air turned chilly and Mark tightened his jacket around his lanky frame. The first stars, tiny silver pearls, appeared on sky twinkling peacefully. With a sigh Mark put the remaining beans and peas back into his backpack and leaned against the massive tree trunk. Tiredness took over his body, his eyes fell shut and he asleep.

 

* * *

 

 

The sleep was dreamless, cold and lonely. But Mark was glad about it. He had dreaded falling asleep because he didn´t want to see his mom or the undead or anything bad. When the sun reared it´s head through the tree branches, Mark started walking again. After walking for about an hour he saw a tiny looking house far away in the distance, right below the horizon, on the yellow fields. He needed to be careful. It could be a home to a group of ruthless humans or of hungry undead. And Mark didn´t want to encounter neither. He didn´t look where he was going and thus his foot got caught in a bulging tree root. With a yelp Mark fell to the ground. Shocked by the sudden fall Mark blinked confused and stood up cursing. At least nobody saw- a loud crack sounded from his left from the forest. His breath got caught in his throat and he felt panic arise. He stared into the overgrown ticket, trying to make out the source of the sound. Everything had turned quiet.

All of a sudden, he heard a terrified scream: “Help, somebody help!” Mark didn´t hesitate and immediately ran into the thicket. He beat branches and plants out of the way with his crowbar and took the knife out of its holster. The screams sounded again, and his steps got faster. He was close. He rounded a tree and abruptly came to a halt. In front of him stood a boy with huge fearful eyes, pressed against a tree, beating away four undead with a thick branch. The undead were screeching and trying to grab him with their bony hands. They hadn´t seen Mark yet, so he ushered towards them with quiet steps and pushed his knife swiftly into the head of one undead. The boy gasped surprised and started beating harder. The undead turned around to Mark and started grabbing towards his direction. Mark swung the crowbar and hit one right between the eyes and it´s skull made a disgusting sound.

“Behind you!”, yelled the boy while beating repeatedly on the two undead in front of him.

Mark whipped his head around and saw at least six undead walk out of the thicket, beginning to circle them. They were trapped. He cursed and grabbed the crowbar tighter. They seemed slow due to hunger, but that made them more aggressive and they were more than the two of them.

“Do you have a weapon?” Mark backed away from the nearing undead.

The boy had finally smashed the other two´s skulls and showed him the branch grimly. “No, that´s all I have.”

“That won´t help a lot, here take this.” He held the knife towards the boy, who grabbed it with sigh.

Mark threw his backpack to the ground, gulped and then hurled himself onto one undead. He smashed the crowbar onto it´s skull with all his force and tried to stay away from it´s teeth. The undead´s skull cracked violently, and it fell lifeless to the ground. Mark turned around and faced an angry undead jumping towards him with wide opened mouth and clawy hands. Mark rammed the crowbar right into the opened mouth down the throat. The undead gurgled miserable and sank to the ground.

“This is way to easy”, laughed the boy jamming the knife confident between the eyes of an undead.

Mark chuckled while attacking another one, drilling his crowbar onto its head.

“My name´s Jaemin by the way”, yelled the boy, while jabbing his knife into another skull.

Mark couldn´t believe how the boy could be so talkative while fighting, he himself could feel his strength lessen.

“I´m Mark”, grunted Mark breathless.

This undead was somehow stronger than then others and pushed Mark backwards. He tried pushing back, but suddenly he stumbled and fell onto his back. The undead tackled him with a deathly screech and tried biting down, but Mark blocked its mouth with his crowbar.

“Shit, Jaemin!”, called Mark the other helplessly.   
  
“Give me a second!” Jaemin was cornered by two undead and tried killing them at the same time.

Mark scoffed and tried pushing off the undead, but his muscles were burning and aching. The undead growled hungrily, scratching Mark´s arms and face. Jaemin was till occupied but Mark couldn´t hold the undead back anymore. This was it. He didn´t even survive a week alone. This was his end he-

“Hey you ugly cutlets! Leave them alone!”

Something hit the undead sitting on top of him and it went flying away from him. Mark snapped his head up and saw another boy, slamming in the undead´s head with a pink baseball bat. Blood splashed everywhere, and bones cracked.

Jaemin killed his last undead and shouted annoyed: “Finally, it´s about time you come!”

Mark raised his brows in confusion. The other boy straightened up and looked with pure disgust written over his face down onto the undead.

“Sorry, I ran into some of those meat fuckers myself.”

Jaemin huffed and sat down exhausted onto the ground. Mark was still lying, but his body was too tired to move. The other boy looked at him and met his eyes. Mark was already out of breath, but this knocked all remaining air out of his lungs. The boy was absolutely beautiful. His caramel skin glistening with sweat, his caramel hair all tousled and fluffed up. He cocked his head, swung his bloody bat over his shoulder and blowed a fucking bubblegum bubble. Where he got bubblegum from, was a mystery to Mark.

“And who are you?”

Mark felt all blood rush into his face and stuttered out a weak ‘Mark’. The boy chuckled his eyes glistening with something Mark couldn´t identify.

“I´m Donghyuck.”

“He came and helped me, when I screamed for help”, interrupted Jaemin. “Unlike you”, added the boy with a small teasing smile.

Donghyuck groaned and rolled his eyes, pretending to hit Jaemin with his bat, who giggled amused. Mark watched them curiously.

“Do you know each other?”

Donghyuck looked at Mark and huffed without any real spite: “Sadly yes.”

Jaemin jumped up with a fake offended ‘hey’ and punched softly the other boy´s shoulder. Mark was confused.

“Are you alone Mark?” Asked Donghyuck, looking at him with his beautiful round eyes.

Mark nodded, trying not think of his mom, he couldn´t tear up now.

“Well Mark”, replied Donghyuck with a blinding smile, holding out his hand to help Mark up, “you´re not alone anymore.”


	2. welcome to our little family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark meets the other boys and is allowed to stay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this took me so long .. lol  
> but school and mental health were kicking my ass the past weeks..  
> n e ways, it´s up now.   
> i don´t really like it but i also don´t want to let this fic die oh well,,  
> enjoy :')

Donghyuck and Jaemin had led Mark to the house he had seen earlier standing on the field. Well, house was a bit exaggerated. It was more a mixture of an old farm house and a shed.

“It´s not much, but mi casa esta tu casa”, announced Donghyuck with a bright smile pointing with his pink baseball bat at the door.

Jaemin scoffed amused: “That´s not even correct Spanish Hyuck.”

Mark saw Donghyuck roll his eyes exasperated and couldn´t stop the small smile forming on his lips. Suddenly he grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the door. Mark couldn´t help but notice how incredibly soft and warm Donghyuck´s hands were. The latter knocked his bat against the door in a rhythmic beat.

“Our friends probably already saw us coming from afar but we still gotta knock.”

Mark swallowed. Jaemin and Donghyuck hadn´t said anything about friends. What if they didn´t want him to stay with them?

“And they won´t mind...me?” asked Mark suddenly very unsure of himself.

Jaemin gave him a pat on the shoulder and replied with a chuckle: “Don´t worry. You´ve saved me, of course they won´t mind.”

The door creaked open and a boy with a dirty beanie greeted him. The boy cocked his head, seemingly confused, and stared suspiciously at him. Mark tried to keep calm and gave him a weak smile.

“Who´s that?”, asked the boy coldly and looked at Jaemin and Donghyuck.

“Let us inside Injunnie and we´ll explain”, replied Jaemin. The boy nodded and let them step inside.

Donghyuck still didn´t let go of his hand and dragged him towards a rugged couch standing in a corner. Mark let himself flop down on it, feeling the exhaustion flood his whole body. Donghyuck sat next to him and chuckled amused. The boy, Jaemin had called him Injunnie sat on a chair in front of the couch and looked expectantly at him. Jaemin too the seat next to the boy and place a calming hand on his thigh. Mark avoided the testing eyes of the boy and let his gaze wander over the inside of the house. It seemed like an old farm house that the boys apparently renovated. The couch stood in front of boxes pushed together, functioning as a desk and three unmatching chairs. He spotted a rusty cooker behind shelves stacked with even rustier tools and a ladder in the back of the shed that probably led to the hay attic. Suddenly a boy climbed down the ladder and walked towards them. He wore a worn-out leather jacket.

“What´s going on here?”

“Is Jeno still out?”, asked Donghyuck.

The boy in the leather jacket nodded: “Yeah, but I he should come soon.”

Donghyuck bit his lip and sighed: “Alright boys, this is Mark and we found him.”

Mark scoffed at the wording but still send the other two a sweet smile. He hoped it didn´t show his anxiety. But the two boys didn´t seem convinced.

“What Hyuck wants to say”, interrupted Jaemin looking at the other two. “Mark came when I screamed for help and saved me from a at least ten undead. He´s a good guy, I can tell that.”

The boy in the leather jacket looked amazed at Mark: “Really? That´s so badass!”

Mark felt his cheeks heat up at the attention. The boy squeezed himself between next to Mark and stared still in wonder at him.

“I´m Jisung and you definitely need to show me your tricks.”

The boy´s eyes seemed huge and child like and Mark could feel his heart soften. He nodded with a smile. Injunnie coughed to gain Mark´s attention.

“Do you know anything about the sm clan?”

Jaemin groaned in annoyance, Jisung shook his head in disbelieve and Donghyuck hissed ‘Renjun’ but the boy ignored them. Mark was confused. He didn´t know anything about that clan. It´s always been his mom and him. But he had heard of people joining clans and most times these clans were violent and ruthless.

“I know nothing about them. I´ve actually never heard about them until right now.”

Mark tried to sound not too intimidated by the beanie boy, whose real name seemed to be Renjun and who still didn´t seem to be convinced.

Jaemin rubbed Renjun´s thigh soothingly and uttered with a certain softness: “Injunnie please, he was all alone-“ “Exactly”, interrupted Renjun sharply. “He was all alone when you found him and no matter how good he´s at killing undead, it´s very unlikely that he was able to survive for so long on his own.”

Mark swallowed. Renjun was right, he wouldn´t have survived alone, but he hadn´t been alone until two days ago. Tears started to blurry his vision and he tried to not sniff out aloud.

Weak and quiet he replied: “It´s true I wasn´t alone.”

Jaemin, Renjun and Jisung all took a deep inhale, starring warily. Beside him he felt Donhyuck tense.

“I wasn´t alone until-“ his voice broke and the tears started running down his sweaty cheeks.

Donghyuck took (to Mark´s surprise) his hand and squeezed it.

Mark took a deep breath and steadied his voice: “I wasn´t alone until my mom died two days ago.”

He buried his face in his hands and started sobbing. He could hear his mother´s screams echo in his mind. He felt arms wrap around his shoulders and a hand rub soothingly over his hair. Renjun coughed again and Mark glanced up. The boy looked pitiful. His eyes were glassy and the corner´s of his mouth drooped down.

“I´m truly sorry Mark. I was a bit too wary, I guess. You can stay of course.”

Renjun ran a hand over his face and sighed exhausted: “Please forgive me.”

Mark sniffed. He wasn´t even mad at Renjun. If he were Renjun he wouldn´t have trusted him neither.

So he ensured the boy: “Don´t worry, I´m not mad.”

The boy exhaled obviously glad and smiled: “Well then…welcome to our little family.”

Mark felt more than just relieved and let out a small giggle. Jaemin stood up.

“Renjun and I cook dinner, Jisung you´re still on look-out duty and Hyuck you show Mark around.”

And with that he grabbed Renjun´s hand and dragged him towards the small stove. Jisung grumbled and made his way towards the ladder he had come from earlier, but not without sending Mark a last smile. Only now Mark realized that he was still wrapped up in Donghyuck´s embrace and felt his heart double in speed.

“See, they don´t have a problem with you staying”, Donghyuck grinned down at him.

“And what about that Jeno guy?” Donghyuck giggled and Mark swore his heart just fell out of his ass.

“Jeno is the least wary person on this planet, he won´t have a problem with you staying at all.”

Mark sighed relieved and let out a small ‘okay’. Donghyuck chuckled and let go of Mark who was kind of sad about not being held anymore. But before he really could complain, Donghyuck grabbed his hand.

“Gotta give you a house tour.”

He dragged him towards the ladder and motioned him to climb up.

Mark whined and pouted: “My arms are still exhausted.”

Donghyuck rolled his eyes in amusement: “Don´t worry grandpa, I´ll catch you if you fall.”

Mark huffed fake annoyed but started climbing ignoring his arms screaming in exhaustion at him. On the top was, just as he suspected earlier, the hay attic. But it was much more. In between the seemingly endless hay were blankets and pillows, looking surprisingly cozy. Donghyuck crawled the ladder up behind him and threw himself onto a huge pile of hay with a blue blanket on it, grinning at Mark.

“Oprah would be jealous.”

Mark laughed and nodded at the boy who was currently flattening the hay.

“You can sleep next to me”, uttered Donghyuck looking sheepishly at Mark.

“Only if you want to of course.”

Mark screamed. Only internally of course. Donghyuck really wanted him to sleep beside him. Trying to calm his hormones he sat down besides the latter and sent small smile.

“I´d love to, really.”

Donghyuck beamed and Mark swore the sun was nothing compared to the younger.

“I´m really glad we found you Mark”, stated the boy and laid himself back.

“I´m really glad you found me Donghyuck”, replied Mark laying back beside the other.

Donghyuck giggled and hummed satisfied. Mark could fall asleep right then and there if it wasn´t for Jaemin calling from downstairs that dinner was ready. But Mark didn´t mind. He felt happy and safe and thankful for somebody calling him for dinner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tell me wether u liked it or not pls  
> also if you have any ideas for the future of this fic


	3. late night talks and zombies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark can´t sleep because of his traumatic nightmares and decides to acompany Donghyuck during his vigil. He finds more about the other boy and his heart can´t stop fluttering.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> howdy guys!  
> school, depression and life has been kicking my ass the past few months and basicially prevented me from writing but I'M BACK!! (i don't know for how long but shhhh)  
> i hope you like this chapter where we basicially just explore Donghyuck's past and Mark's and his quickly developing relationship.   
> ENJOY !!

The dinner had been absolutely delicious thanks to Jaemin´s and Renjun´s otherworldly cooking skill. Quite possibly he would have considered the meal just average under different circumstances but he hadn´t had a proper one in ages and was just glad to have one in general. Jaemin and Renjun had piled up cooked vegetables, such as potatoes and carrots that the boys grew behind the house. They had used a can of Mark´s peas, brew some sort of meat stew and even had prepared a can of Mark´s peaches. Donghyuck, Jisung and Jeno, who had come home in the meantime were just as in awe as Mark was over the feast. Jaemin had explained upon noticing their questioning gazes that today was a day to celebrate because they had gotten a new family member. At that Mark had blushed bright red. The boys had all looked at him with genuine smiles and he had felt warm inside for the first time in a very long time. During the meal they had all chattered about anything and Mark also introduced himself to Jeno, who had the kindest eye smile and was in general a sweet soul. After the meal, they had all went up into the hay attic and settled down spread out all over the attic into their makeshift beds.

  
Mark was able to hear Jaemin, Jeno and Renjun quietly giggle and murmur from around a corner and saw Jisung’s oil lamp flicker behind the huge mountain of hay Mark was laying on. Even though Donghyuck had said they’d sleep next to each other, the cute boy wasn´t beside Mark. He had vigil tonight and wouldn´t be able to sleep. Mark knew night watch was necessary but still was a bit disappointed.

He turned over and pat the hay to flatten it but without any success. His living standards weren´t necessarily high and he wasn´t picky when it came to sleeping places, but the hay was incredibly poky and tickled. Sighing he closed his eyes and tried concentrating on the distant chatter and blend out the pokes of the hay straws.

As the voices of the others slowly got quieter, the ones in his head got louder. Terrified screams echoed inside his mind. Images started flashing behind his eyelids. Images of his mother, of the undead. His breathing got faster, quickly turning erratic. He heard her screams, screams for him inside his head. He couldn´t breathe, a nod formed inside his throat. With a quiet yelp, he ripped open his eyes. The hay attic was dark and silent. Mark couldn´t hear anything except for the faint breathing of the others. The waves of panic inside of him ebbed away slowly and he was able to calm his heart and breathing. He was tired but the adrenalin prevented his eyes from closing again.

Trying not to make any sound and wake the others, he rose from his hay mountain and stepped onto the wooden floor. Donghyuck was at the other end of the barn, at the “vigil-window”, as he had explained Mark earlier and was probably the only one awake right now. Carefully Mark started shuffling towards his destination, which wasn´t easy thanks to the creaky flooring and the darkness. He made out the contour of Jisung’s sleeping body after he rounded his own hay mountain and saw luckily the faint flickering of Donghyuck’s oil lamp.

After rounding another hay corner, he was spotted Donghyuck´s silhouette sitting in front of him looking out of a small window. Next to him stood a seemingly rotatable telescope, probably for a better overview of the surroundings. The boy turned around and met Mark’s eyes.

“Can’t sleep huh?”

Mark sighed and nodded, sending the other a small smile. Donghyuck patted the space next to him for Mark to sit down who complied immediately.

Donghyuck faced the window again, “You know”, he whispered gingerly, “I actually don´t mind being on vigil. I can’t sleep most nights anyway.”

Mark hummed with understanding and let his gaze wander over the dark field outside the window. 

“Do you have nightmares too?” asked Donghyuck, carefully peering through his long lashes at Mark. 

“I’ve only started getting them”, Mark steadied his voice, “after what happened with my mom and-“, his voice broke. 

Donghyuck squeezed his shoulder encouragingly: “You don’t have to tell me, Mark. But if you’re ready or need someone to talk I’m here, okay?”

Mark looked at Donghyuck. He was smiling brightly and friendly and Mark felt his heart do a summersault.   
Mark tore his gaze away and nodded looking at the ground. 

“My parents died when I was just a few years old”, began Donghyuck with a monotonous voice. 

Mark whipped his head back towards the other, his eyes big and in shock. He wanted to know more about Donghyuck but didn’t know whether he was ready for a tragic story. But he let him go on. 

“They died in an accident in the fabric they´ve worked in, in the safe city. My grandparents took me in after that.”

A sad smile graced the boy’s soft features and he looked off into the distance, like he was somewhere far away, in a different time.

“They had a beautiful farmhouse. Not very big, but beautiful and it was far away from the undead flocks. We thought we were safe, that the government would rot out the undead before they´d reach us and until I was like fifteen or sixteen, I actually grew up without any undead-encounters. But the government never got the undead under control and they´ve appeared more and more frequently around the farmhouse. It never became a problem though. Grandpa and I kept us safe.”

Donghyuck let out an amused chuckle and Mark could tell he was reliving the fond memories inside his mind. 

“We were safe until the SM clan attacked us”, snapped the other suddenly, his expression bitter and cold. “They raided all our supplies, food, weapons - just everything. My grandpa tried to fight, but-“

His voice broke and he clenched his hand into a tight fist. Mark was more than unsure what to do but carefully and ever so gently took Donghyuck’s fist into his own hand. The other looked up at him with surprise written all over his face. Mark sent him an uncertain smile, trying to tell him it was okay. Donghyuck seemed to get his message and unclenched his fist and his lips curled ever so slightly upwards.

“Anyways”, Donghyuck continued, now with a steady voice again, but not letting go of Mark´s hand.  
“The clan took me with them but left my grandparents behind. They were too old to contribute anything to the clan or some bullshit.”

Mark caressed Donghyuck´s hand gently with his thumb: “That is indeed bullshit.”

Donghyuck hummed. 

“I wanted to die. Life in the clan was horrible. They beat you unconscious if you don´t follow orders, they kill people trying to rebel and if you don´t have an important rank you´re treated like shit no matter how well you follow their orders.”

Donghyuck’s pretty features crumbled up in disgust.

“I saw a lot of horrible shit happening during that time.”

Mark could imagine the horror the other must have lived through by the way his voice and expression oozed loathing. 

“The only good thing that happened to me was meeting Jaemin.”

Mark perked up in surprise. He didn´t see that coming. He knew the boys must have had some sort of backstory but somehow didn´t expect this to come anyways. 

“How did you meet?”

“Well”, Donghyuck sighed heavy-hearted,”Jaemin’s uncle is actually one of the leaders of the clan.”

Mark gasped in shook. He definitely hadn’t expected this. 

“Jaemin had lived his whole life in the clan and he hated it just as much as I did. So we clicked pretty fast”, recalled Donghyuck with a smirk.

Mark couldn´t help but smile back but he still had so many questions.

“How did you to get away from the clan?”, asked Mark the other with confusion laced in his voice, “or did they just let you go?”

Donghyuck chuckled and shook his head in amusement. 

“Oh Mark”, he couldn´t stop giggling, and Mark regretted asking an apparently obviously stupid question,” I wish it would have been that easy.”

The boy finally calmed down and started playing with Mark´s hand that was still wrapped around the others. 

“There are basically only four things you need to know about the SM clan”, he looked up suddenly voice all serious and eyes cold.  
“They’re ruthless, they´re dangerous, you better stay away as far as you can from them and once you´re a member, they never let you go.”

Mark shuddered and replied quietly:” But you two made it!”

Donghyuck nodded, now with a tiny smug smile.

“Jaemin and I planned for months. Thanks to Jaemin’s basically lifelong knowledge about the clan we were able to flee. But they´ve searched for us for weeks, wanted us dead and probably still want us dead, but we´ve stumbled across Jisung, Jeno and Renjun and have been safe ever since.”

Donghyuck shot him a smile, still playing nervously with Mark´s fingers. 

“I´m so glad you were safe with the others and I’m so glad I found you guys”, murmured Mark, involuntarily blushing faintly. 

Donghyuck cooed and patted his hand: “You´re safe here too now, Markie.”

Mark perked up - ‘Markie’. His blush only intensified, and he stuttered out a weak: “Markie? Really?”

Donghyuck grinned, intertwining their fingers again: “Yes, really Markie.”

Mark shook his head and looked out of the window, trying to hide his flaming red cheeks. Hopefully, the dim lighting would help conceal it even more, but going by Donghyuck’s teasingly glinting eyes, it probably didn´t work out.   
Suddenly Donghyuck whipped his head towards the window. Mark scrunched his eyebrows together in worry and tried to detect what mad the other boy perk up. Donghyuck let go (to Mark´s disappointment) of his hand and grabbed the telescope, spying through it. 

“There´s an undead.”

Mark hissed out a shocked what, feeling a rush of panic flood his body. He really didn’t want to find some hungry undead in the middle of the night. Not after feeling safe the whole day.  
As if he had noticed Mark’s panic, Donghyuck let go of the telescope with one hand and reached for his hand again. Mark grabbed it tightly, the warmth immediately calming him. 

Still peering through the telescope lens Donghyuck muttered calmly: “It´s far away, we probably don´t have to worry about it.”

Despite Donghyuck´s affirming words he felt his heart still beat rapidly. So, he did the only reasonable thing and slid a bit closer to the other boy. Donghyuck shot him a quick questioning glance but focused on the undead again watching its every move.

“What are you going to do if it comes too close?”

“If it ignores the barn and just walks past it´s not a danger, but if it still has some consciousness left and tries to get inside, I´ll shoot it.”

Mark cocked his head. It made sense, but wouldn´t a shot make too much noise?

“Won´t the shot attract more undead or the SM clan?”

Now Donghyuck turned his head towards him and grinned in a way that made Mark´s insides tingle. The other nodded towards the ground next to him and turned back to the telescope without saying anything. Mark followed the direction Donghyuck had nodded at and spotted - a bow with arrows. Of course, Donghyuck had to have the most extra ass weapons.

Mark snorted amused and stared at the boy beside him fondly. 

“It disappeared into the forest”, Donghyuck declared, turning his head and reciprocating the stare, “at least for now.”

Mark let out a relieved sigh and only now noticed how heavy his eyelids actually had turned. He let out a deep yawn that brought tears to his eyes. After the tears had seeped back into his tear glands, he noticed Donghyuck sending him a stare Mark couldn´t decipher. But it was somewhat fond and amused. 

“You can try to catch some sleep if you want. You don´t have to stay awake because of me.”

Mark really wanted to sleep, but he was scared. Scared of seeing and hearing his mother. 

“I’m scared of the nightmares”, was all he mumbled nearly inaudible.

But Donghyuck caught it and didn´t waste any second stretching out his legs and patting them.

“You”, started the boy, suddenly turning sheepish, “you can sleep here… So you won´t be alone since I´m here.”

Mark, suddenly totally overcome by the incredible urge to sleep, felt too tired to be embarrassed or feel anything besides sleepy and just nodded compliantly. He laid down in Donghyuck’s lap, still holding the others hand and closed his exhausted eyes. He felt Donghyuck stroke through his probably dirty hair and drifted further off and off.

The last things he perceived before drifting off into a dreamless slumber was Donghyuck’s one hand in his, Donghyuck’s other hand in his hair and a quiet ‘Night Markie.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> leave some kudos and comments pls?  
> also i´m really motivated to write because i have FINALLY worked out the whole plot!  
> so maybe, there´ll be soon a chapter??
> 
> n e ways ,,, yell at me on twt @hyuckira :)

**Author's Note:**

> PLEAsE give me feedback (bad, good, idc, just ANY)  
> oh and if you find spelling errors, pls be my beta reader because i´m literally to blind to see them lol  
> the next chapter might be up next week?? but don´t take my word for granted 
> 
> hit me up on twt @hyuckira


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